Lewis Hamilton expressed satisfaction with his Mercedes performance, labeling it as the “best it has felt this year,” setting the stage for the remainder of the Japanese GP weekend.
Following a tumultuous day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton remained upbeat yet critical of the circumstances that left fans wanting.
After enduring a challenging outing in Australia a fortnight prior, Mercedes seems to have delivered a more balanced W15 for Hamilton, the seven-time F1 champion, and his teammate George Russell.
During the first practice session at Suzuka, the British pair finished fifth and fourth quickest, respectively, trailing Max Verstappen’s Red Bull by half a second before rain disrupted the subsequent session. Despite the initial gap to Verstappen, Hamilton was pleased with the performance.
He remarked, “It was a great session, a really good session for us. That’s the best the car has felt this year so far, so I felt really positive, and I was really excited because this is a circuit every driver loves to drive.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve had really difficult balance, a really difficult car to drive here, and given the difficult last couple of races we’ve had, great work has been done this past week, and we just seem to have hit the ground [running], with a sweeter spot.”
Regrettably, Mercedes, like numerous other teams, couldn’t confirm its apparent progress in FP2 due to the prevailing conditions.
Rainfall commenced thirty minutes before FP2, persisting intermittently throughout the session, leading six drivers, including Verstappen, to abstain from taking to the track altogether.
Hamilton managed to undertake a soft-tyre run towards the end of the session, securing the second-quickest time behind Oscar Piastri in his McLaren.
However, the alteration in tyre regulations for this season, coupled with uncertain weather forecasts for the weekend, prompted teams to opt for minimal running in FP2.
This year, the Sporting Advisory Committee stipulated that each driver begins the weekend with five sets of intermediates and two sets of extremes, with no requirement to return any, irrespective of the weather outlook. No additional sets are allocated for the weekend.
In contrast, last year, drivers commenced with four sets, with a fresh set provided for the weekend if any were utilized during Friday sessions.
Given the potential for rain in Japan this weekend, teams opted to preserve as many sets of intermediates as possible, resulting in minimal laps being completed.
Reflecting on the remainder of the weekend and whether FP1 encouraged, Hamilton remarked, “It’s hard to know but we have a better platform, a better baseline to start from, so as long as we don’t make too many changes and mess it up, probably just stay where we are, then hopefully….
“It’s a shame we didn’t get that [second] session but they have changed the tyre rule so therefore no one goes out and runs on the intermediate, which doesn’t make sense really, but there you go.”
